During a recording or live performance, musicians and singers often desire the freedom of being able to have their musical instrument or voice audio signals being connected to recording or amplification devices without the encumbrance of an electrical cable.
Analog wireless systems that transmit audio signals over radio frequencies have existed for many decades and have been a viable solution but they include many limitations. Analog transmission systems for audio signals typically have limited bandwidth and dynamic range and the analog transmission system is susceptible to unwanted radio interference being heard through the audio system. With an analog system, as the radio frequency degrades, or interference occurs, the audio quality degrades.
In typical digital wireless systems, once the radio signal has degraded to a level in which the digital data is unreadable, the audio signal must be muted. As a result, typical digital audio wireless systems often include bidirectional communications that permit the receiver to request the retransmission of the digital audio data. Unfortunately, latency (i.e., delay time) is introduced to allow time for the retransmission.
In many cases, the latency associated with the wireless transmission of digital audio can be easily tolerated. For example, digitally transmitting audio that is being played from a recording can contain latency in the tens of milliseconds without being obvious to the listener.
On the other hand, performers of live music can tolerate only very low latency (e.g., 5 milliseconds or less) before the latency can negatively affects the performance and interaction of musicians. As a result, present techniques for the retransmission of digital audio are not a viable solution because of the amount of time required for retransmission.